


Shoot for the Moon

by CobraOnTheCob



Series: Fluffcember 2020 [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Fluffcember, Fluffcember 2020, Katara knows she just wants Zuko to make the first move, Post-War, Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck, first snow
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-01
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:28:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27833014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CobraOnTheCob/pseuds/CobraOnTheCob
Summary: It's the first snow of the year in the Southern Water Tribe and Zuko has sort of kind of not really made a promise to tell Katara something.
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Series: Fluffcember 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2037178
Comments: 3
Kudos: 25





	Shoot for the Moon

**Author's Note:**

> i almost didn't get this done today aklsdfjakwjf
> 
> anyways let's hope my next fics for this month won't be as long...

“First snow? How can you tell when it’s the first snow when it’s cold all-year round?” Zuko asked when Katara brought up the First Snow Festival and how much the entire friend group should go. She giggled at his confusion.

“Well, the Fire Nation has a rainy season, right? We kind of have the same thing - one season doesn’t have snow, the other one does.” she said, and Zuko’s eye widened.

“Ohhhh...I see,” he said, “That makes sense now. When should I pack my - “

“Do it right now!” Katara said, a wide grin splitting her face as she got up and backed out of the room, “We do have two weeks off!”

“Thank goodness I arranged for that,” Zuko muttered, “Oh wait, did I never - “

* * *

Somehow, Aang got the message that they should go down to the Southern Water Tribe to attend the First Snow Festival, and actually got Appa to fly to the Fire Nation, pick up Katara and Zuko, fly down to Kyoshi and pick up Suki, Sokka, and Toph, and then finally make the final leg of the destination, a day before the predicted first snowfall day.

Of course, Zuko was distracted by Katara’s beauty to care about how close they were to seeing the first snow. The only thing that could take his attention away was his friends speaking to him, chattering about how well the Southern Water Tribe had recovered post-war and the details of the festival. He only half-participated in that conversation, unable to get his mind off of telling Katara he loved her.

_He’ll tell her before they go back to the Fire Nation. That’s a promise._

A promise he hasn’t made to anyone, actually. Just himself, unless he counted the turtleducks, but the turtleducks knew _everything_ about him at this point.

Okay, for the sake of confessing in a relatively private spot where things wouldn’t blow up in his face should the worst case scenario happen, he will count the turtleducks as having heard his promise.

* * *

“Wake up, Mr. I-Rise-With-The-Sun!” Katara said, shaking him awake, “Even _Sokka_ got up, you don’t want to miss it!” Zuko’s only response was to groan and try to bury himself under the furs, unused to waking up cold.

“I rise with the sun, but I stay under the furs when it’s too cold,” he grunts, and Katara laughs.

“You’re getting weaker,” she teases and pokes him again, and it’s only then that Zuko realizes that _she’s in the room the family set aside for the boys._

“I’m up, I’m up!” Zuko yelps, trying to get out of the furs. Katara grabbed the foot of his sleeping bag to help him wiggle out of there, and he pulled himself out in a very undignified manner.

“Breakfast’s waiting for you,” Katara said as she left the room, and Zuko sighs from his spot on the floor. 

“Thanks, Katara!” he says, getting up and rubs his hands together before using his breathing exercises to warm him up.

_Today’s the day,_ he promises himself as he seats himself next to Katara and happily takes a bowl of penguin-otter stew. He glances over to Aang pouring some spices into his sea prune stew and raises a brow at that. Katara notices and leans in to whisper in his ear.

“Being a vegetarian limits his options,” she says, “Poor kid can only eat sea prunes...which I admit are an acquired taste.”

“Oh?” Zuko asked, and Katara blinked at him.

“What? Do you want to try some?” 

“Sure, why not?” Zuko said, taking the challenge. Katara shrugged, asked for someone to pass a sea prune to her, and Zuko tried it. It wasn’t too far off the mark from an ocean kumquat, and while the flavor was strong, he was used to extreme flavors thanks to his three year exile and found that it was actually good, once you got over the shock of the flavor.

“You like it?” Katara asked, and Zuko nodded.

“Honestly from what Aang said, I was expecting something really bad, but this isn’t too bad!” Zuko said, and then whispered in Katara’s ear, “I bet it’s all the sweets in Aang’s diet - kid’s too used to sweet flavors that he can’t appreciate a good sea prune stew.”

“That won’t fly with Gran-Gran,” she said with a wink, and butterflies fluttered in Zuko’s stomach.

“No, no it wouldn’t,” he said, and hastily digs into his stew so that he doesn’t accidentally blurt out that he had a crush on her while her family was still right there.

* * *

He manages to get through breakfast without combusting, and they quickly make their way outside of the city to the polar desert plain. Toph convinced Aang to carry her on his back, and Aang somehow agreed, while Sokka and Suki walked together, quietly laughing and trading jokes with each other. He fell in with Katara and leaned in close to her ear.

“Hey, um…” he started, “Do you know of a place where we can be a little more secluded? Don’t want to bother the others, especially when Sokka and Suki are practically glued to each other and Toph needs someone who’s willing to carry her.”

“No problem,” Katara said, “I think that would’ve happened, eventually. Come on!” She grabbed his hand and tugged him into a run.

“Where are you two going?!” Sokka called. 

“Not too far, don’t worry!” Katara said, “Just something to give you guys some space!”

“What?” Sokka asked, but Katara didn’t respond, and with a grin to Zuko, she made an ice platform not too dissimilar to the one she made when they broke into the communication tower all those years ago, and began pulling the both of them forward through the snow. 

“Alright, we’re far enough from them unless Aang gets it into his head to do the same thing,” Katara said, slowing down. Zuko clenched a fist as subtly as possible, but he could’ve sworn that Katara sounded irritated at the thought of Aang being with them.

“Yeah, it’s a good spot,” Zuko said, glancing up at the sky and seeing the grey clouds promising snow. Something cold and wet landed on his nose, and when he went to brush it off, he noticed it was water.

“It’s here!” Katara exclaimed, as the snow started to fall like a drizzle, “We have to be careful though, a light snow can become a heavy snow without warning sometimes.”

“Well, we do have an amazing waterbender master on hand,” Zuko said and Katara beamed. Oh, spirits of fire and water, help him now, her beauty was dazzling like sun on the snow.

“And worst comes to worst, we have a firebending master on hand who’ll keep us warm.”

“Us,” Zuko said, “Us.”

“Yeah?” Katara asked, looking up at him. Zuko swallowed.

“You’re dazzling beautiful like the snow when the sun hits it,” Zuko said on impulse, and Katara softly giggled.

“What? I’m blinding?” she asked, her eyes glinting with amusement.

“You’re beautiful and there’s no one who’ll compare,” Zuko said, throwing everything into the wind now, “You’re beautiful and I…”

“Oh?” she asked, raising a brow, and Zuko gulped.

“Mom would say that I should shoot for the moon,” he said suddenly, changing the subject, “Weird, isn’t it? My Fire Nation-minded mother telling me to go for the moon instead of the sun. But the moon is beautiful and you can look at it directly, and it’s both light and dark, just like you. You’re the embodiment of your element, and you reflect the moon so well.”

“Zuko?” she asked softly, her voice shaking.

_Oh no._

“I’m sorry,” Zuko said quickly, “I just...I love you, Katara. And...if you don’t see me that way, that’s alright. We can stay friends, I’ll always want to be your friend. But I needed to tell you - “ Zuko’s cut off from saying more by Katara launching herself at him and pulling him in a hug.

“You fool,” she laughed, “If you want to be my boyfriend, then yeah, I’ll happily be your girlfriend.” 

“Really?” Zuko asked, stunned. Katara beamed and her smile was infectious.

“Actually, I’ve been waiting to see if you would finally realize what you were feeling,” Katara said, “And I was waiting for when you’d tell me.”

“Was I that obvious?” 

“A little bit,” she said, “And the palace gossip helped a little - they could see it before we did it, honestly.”

“Oh...oh my,” Zuko said, “So, uh, what should we do about us then?”

“Anything you want, honestly. If you don’t want us to be announced right now, we can do it whenever you’re comfortable.”

“If it works for you.”

“We’re...going to go back and forth on this, aren’t we?”

“Yeah, yeah we are.”

“We’ll make it our secret until people start asking,” Katara said, gripping his hands. 

“I like that,” Zuko said, “But uh, we should get back to the group...unless…”

“A few minutes out here enjoying the first snow of the year won’t hurt,” Katara said with a grin, and they stood there, enjoying the falling snow that was now becoming a moderate snowfall. Katara took some of the falling snow and started bending moves, and Zuko copied her.

“I wonder if I can adapt these into firebending moves,” Zuko commented.

“Try it,” Katara encouraged, and Zuko produced a small flame - strong enough to withstand the snow and wind, but small enough to not disturb Katara taking the snowfall. They were almost bending in sync, Katara making the first move, while Zuko mimicked it, heat and cold dancing under the snowfall.

They’ll get back to their friends soon, but for now, the silent bending dance was all they needed.

**Author's Note:**

> i literally do not know how people start dating or what they do. i'm literally pulling this out of my armpits and guessing _*faints*_
> 
> i had to look up the words for snowfalling bc i've experienced one (1) snowfall in my lifetime and it was a very minimal snowfall at best. very disappointing
> 
> not important but f in the chat for Aang bc he's a vegetarian and the only thing they have for him is...sea prunes.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [if (the) turtleducks could talk](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27855382) by [OwlWolf22091](https://archiveofourown.org/users/OwlWolf22091/pseuds/OwlWolf22091)




End file.
